Times have Changed in the workforce

Times have changed in the workforce

A generation ago a career was a means to an end – bread on the table, roof over your family’s head and status someday as a manager in a large respected company. You joined the company, did the job assigned and climbed the corporate ladder at a slow and deliberate pace. Your career and pay didn’t peak until you reached the age of fifty or sixty. Nowadays people needs and wants of a career are more complex and sophisticated. The talented people want the big wages now and when they are in their fifties or sixties, they want to be retired and enjoying the fruits of life. Unlike in previous generations money is still of importance but not as significant as was the case a generation ago. People in their jobs want to feel passionate about their work, uplifted by the company’s leaders, assured by the depth of its management and inspired by its sense of mission. Compensation programs, career paths, training efforts and other techniques are no longer enough to keep hold of the best employees. The market does and no longer the company that will ultimately determine the movement of your employees. You can’t control the pull of the market, although it is possible to shield your best employees from attractive opportunities and aggressive recruiters. Another problem that companies are coming face to face with is the statistical study of all populations “demography” especially in the developed countries that the workforce is getting older and there are not enough young people been born to replace the senior employees. So companies need to hold onto their best staff as there maybe no one to replace them or more difficult to find someone. The figures prove this. In America for example the workforce is maturing with the average age of employees rising from 35 to 55, by 2045 there will be more people over the age of 60 than under the age of 15, and by 2015 the population of American prime management age range of 35 – 41 will be 15% less than it was in 2000. In the European Union by the year 2010 there will be more 54 – 64 years old than 15 – 24 years old. The birth-rate in European countries drops well below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children born to every woman, to somewhere between 1.1 and 1.4 children. Demographic decline causes anxiety because it is thought to go hand-in-hand with economic decline. If management saw employee retention and commitment in the past was akin to tending a dam that keeps a reservoir in place, today it is more like managing a river. The object is not to prevent the water from flowing out but to control its direction and its speed.

The iPOD a Disruptive Innovation

The iPod changed the way we listen to music

At every evolutionary turning point be it appearance of life on Earth, the acquisition of speech by Homo sapiens or the invention of the printing press, the world’s complexity increased by a certain amount
Change is development, something is better now, than what existed beforehand it can be revolutionary examples the car is better than the horse and cart, the light bulb is better than the candle and the iPod is better than the Sony Discman etc.
Change is difficult to predict, who would ever thought that the majority of people in society would want a personal computer in the year 2009, certainly not Ken Olson who famously said “there is no reason anyone would want a personal computer in their home” he said this in 1977 at a time when he was the founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) then the world’s leading minicomputer manufacturer.
Change is inevitable, but if can make the change or predict the change as was the case with Steve Jobs in the development of the iPod, you can reap the rewards and there is no better way of getting into an existing innovation like using the disruptive innovation approach.

“iPod is a disruptive innovation”
Disruptive innovation is a theory that can be describing the impact of new technologies on a firm’s existence (Christensen)
Disruptive innovations are generally innovations that are typically simpler cheaper to use versions of an existing product already in the market, they are more than often target low-end customers or entirely new customers. Established companies are not able to do much about these disruptive innovations that emerge at the bottom end of the market and work their way up into the mainstream. At the mainstream, this is the area were profit margins are the greatest and has the most customers etc, so good companies do what they should and focus most of their energy and resources in this area leaving them subject to disruptive innovations. The reason this happens is because established companies are focusing on their sustained innovation that is maximising profits and continue to make it more desirable and better hence “overshooting” because companies can innovate faster than people’s lives change so people don’t have the ability to absorb them making the product too good and too expensive. Also it is very difficult for an established company to focus on making a product not as good in order to achieve customers that you might get so a lot of the time they try harder to attract Undershot customers rather than Non consumers. However established companies can be the subject also of disruptions from top down as is the case with the iPod. Top down is easier to counter act against, as top down disruptive innovations target innovations which they can actually outperform that already exists which is usually at a higher price, first iPod cost $399 US dollars (the price of a Sony mid-range stereo system) and had the ability to store thousand of songs on a tiny hard drive allowing people to have thousand of songs with them all the time, but in the case of the iPod, Sony the largest distributors of digital music players at the time October 2001 did nothing. The iPod gave customers the option of picking their favourite songs on the internet in iTunes and putting it in there iPod with the click of a button. The reason I think they did nothing is because they knew that 95%of innovations launched by organisations fail and after all, Sony were the global leaders at the time, they also had a problem at the time because Sony owned major record labels such as RCA and Epic and they knew that there was a high possibility of illegal downloading of songs and didn’t want to be seen at the forefront of this potential corruption so they had a conflict of interests really, finally myopia was a problem as Sony was so focused on making their product better that they never looked outside the box and think of a drastically different approach to digital music players of the future.

Why is iPods disruptive innovation a success?
The iPod is a success in my opinion because they had a strategy which they stuck to, the design concept which they believed in, the spin wheel was revolutionary, the ease of access of songs and the ability to have so many in your pocket was the future and at the forefront of it all was the CEO Steve Jobs, he backed the iPod all the way and knew that the speed was essential to it’s success so applied the open innovation theory in acquiring the help of ARM and Pixo. This was an excellent approach as we can see the benefits other companies are having in this approach such as Procter & Gamble, sourcing their products outside the company with the success of the electric toothbrush being a good example. It came from the ideas of 4 entrepreneurs in Cleveland and now is the best selling toothbrush in the United States. This approach also saved money on research and development and give time to focus on other areas such as marketing. iPod was not initially a success, only attracting technology geeks, trend setters, least price sensitive buyers over shooters, with price being expensive at the time $399 dollars. This was ok for iPod at the start as the product was launched and was in the market. Gradually Apple introduced more attractive features such as bigger memory, longer lasting battery, videos, games which attracted more costumers bringing the price down getting a greater market share. Steve Jobs then went about applying disruptive innovation on his own product designing a product that was inferior to the main iPod that had less battery and memory with the introduction of the iPod shuffle and iPod mini. He targeted the low end of the market, that an inferior product was sufficient for undershot customers and maybe even non-consumers. I think he was applying the same approach as Johnson & Johnson’s did in the 80’s and Washington Post did in the 90’s in looking into disruptive innovations. Apple continues to apply the disruptive innovation method and have a team of people to target potential customers they are missing on, so much so that the iPod is a phenomenon. iPod is now a universal word, used for leisure, relaxation, education and exercise. The iPod is certainly making hay when the sun shines with the development of a bucket loads of accessories such as the speakers, holders, socks, wrist bands, earphones etc. iPod is so universal cars even come with iPod connections, and they went into calibration with U2 the band and Nike so that the iPod gives feedback when you run. iPod continues to listen to its costumers letting them know ways to make it better both practically and in technical ways. In the short term the iPod will stay on top in my opinion for a few reasons, iPods competition had to relate their products to them so why buy a copy when you can buy the real one, secondly the iPod ease of use gives it an emotional connection to people just like Nokia who design the main features on each phone the same for every phone, thirdly iPod continue to be innovate with new designs, styles and features and finally they have the best software hardware and services. iPod has sold over 163 million units and will continue to sell a lot more but the only problem I see is if another company follows there approach in disruptive innovation by coming from top down but I think Apple will have learned from Sony’s suicidal error and innovate with this potential competition.

Mobile Commerce

Mobile Commerce is about the explosion of applications and services that are becoming accessible from Internet-enabled mobile devices. It involves new technologies, services and business models. Over the past 10 years mobile phones have changed the way that we live and work. The mobile phone seems to give us more power as individuals to do what we want and be who we want to be. Many people consider mobile phones as extensions of themselves. There are over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide. This means that over 40% of the world’s population carries a mobile phone, far more than use a computer or have access to the Internet. In many developed countries, mobile phone penetration is above 90% and developing countries are catching up fast. The mobile phone is a smaller device but with the same capabilities as the desktop in the office and business can be now conducted on the road.

Mobile Commerce is going to continue to grow as people become more comfortable with the technology and the convenience it offers. When I first got my mobile phone, the only thing I cared about was what games came with and did it have a funky design. How times have changed, in order to exploit the m-commerce market potential, handset manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Qualcomm are working with carriers such as AT&T Wireless and Sprint to develop WAP-enabled smart phones, the industry's answer to the Swiss Army Knife.
The advantage of M-Commerce are providing wider reach, reducing transaction cost, streamline business process, competitive pricing and reducing time to order.

I predict in the future that it will be essential in my employment to be familiar with e-commerce in my daily life as flexibility is going be important. At the moment my knowledge of M- Commerce is not great as I only use my mobile to text and phone and do not use all the other applications such WAP, Bluetooth etc, so I'll need to get connected or be left behind.

NAMA

What is Nama?
I was a little bit unsure exactly what NAMA was all about but i knew it was a word that was being floated about in these recession crisis times so it wasn't likely to mean a new venture scheme that i was getting an extra Christmas bonus. I have done the research and the news AIN''T GOOD. A Christmas bonus, I'll be lucky to still have a job if the finances of our economy are what i am led to believe, "IS McDonald's open on Christmas morning?

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is the Government’s “bad bank” scheme to “cleanse” five financial institutions – AIB, Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, EBS Building Society and Irish Nationwide – of “toxic” loans amassed during the property bubble. The Government says this is the only chance to get the banks lending again and stimulate economic growth.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0917/1224254726800.html

Although political parties are bitching, "i told you so" that ain't really true and neither is it the point,we want solutions not stupid Browne points to come out of this mess. I am not really a fan of politics so i don't mind who is in the Dail, and by all accounts the opposition have an opportunity to lay down ideas yet ditto. The government did not mean for this mess to happen, unlike generation before, we forgot to set aside a few euro in the biscuit tin or under the mattress.
The Celtic Tiger had set up home and was never going to leave, unfortunately the Tiger and her cubs have said "Au Revoir" without a goodbye kiss or a warning letter. Ireland got it's principles wrong, when you owe more than what you can pay, the bubble bursted and everyone is going to get wet.

NAMA is essences is sorting out the banks mistakes. It is difficult for people to pay for the mistakes that banks made in offering loans and credit but it is more naive to ignore these losses as it needs to be sorted. The government say the only answer is NAMA. The Government will pay 54 billion euro in the form of bonds in exchange for the loans. there is approximately 2000 bank customers where loans will transferred to NAMA. The state is paying 7 billion euro extra for these loans on top of their estimated current market value.

I think to overpay for these loans is insane, it is basically robbing the tax payer. I think they should play by the rules of Capitalism, shareholders loose everything when they screw up and make mistakes. The bond owners should become the new shareholders and if that doesn't work the government who are the deposit insurance take control until the banks get their house in order. The argument is that they need banks to lend in order to attract the financial markets. The banks will then be (reasonably) healthy after dumping the bad loans on the taxpayer, their share prices will go up, they won't be perceived as being very weak, and life goes back to normal for them. It could take 4 to 5 years for the full effect of NAMA to fix the problem.

Final Thought
We are a small country dependent on other countries stability and we can't play if we don't have the ball as it is in other countries court. We need to breath in and hold on tight as we are going to fall but we need to brace ourselves for the hit and remember this Christmas after the last sweet is taken out of the box of quality street, keep a hold of that tin as you might need to keep a few euro aside or it will be ham sandwiches on the 25th of December with less "HO HO" and more "OH NO". We will be alright we are after all the "Fighting Irish" and with a couple pints we will soon forget and we will survive.

Is there a place for religion in modern society?

Ireland and peoples opinion on religion has dramatically changed over the course of the last twenty years. A wave of globalisation came to forefront and the values preached by older generations were forgotten. Ireland was a state of seclusion and poverty before globalisation arose, the collapse of communism and the subsequent erosion of political, cultural, and economic barriers across the world, made the priorities in peoples life change. People no longer put an importance on getting to even Sunday mass instead staying at home to watch the repeat of X Factor. The public thought it not necessary to seek the church for guidance and forgiveness, people started to ask the question "what is religion really all about"

The role the church plays in peoples life is less and less due to many things such as people faith in what really is storytelling in a book that being the Bible, the scandals that the church has been much published, most recently giving 34 million in compensation for cases in relation to child sex abuse, the Celtic tiger has also played a significant contribution to the dwelling numbers in churches across Ireland and the increasing number of natural disasters occurring on a much more regular basis has questioned peoples faith. People are coming to the conclusion that if there really was a god theses crimes and disasters would not be happening.

Where has the church lost it trusty followers, the old generation were brought up on the value Catholic Church brought to the community and in cleansing your soul. The older generation are dying and new generation are not passing on these values that their parents and grandparents laid out about the importance of Christianity. While Ireland was adapting to the phenomena of globalisation the church stood still.

Maybe it is time for a priest to be allowed a companion, wife, girlfriend and even children. The church says it is against their morals to use contraception yet it does not allow priest to engage in having a family. Does the bible not say that we are one big family with God THE Father. I would image it is a lonely life to be a priest, witnessing the gloom of death, car accidents, the solemn of death all the time, even the choice of wearing black represents negativity, closure, the end and seclusion. The church is suppose to be open yet there is rules all the time, maybe the rulebook needs to be changed just like humanity has changed. The Church should take a leaf out of the Good Friday Agreement, people that once called each other enemies, the other side; they sat down and changed the rules for the better and work together to achieve peace, harmony and the construction of building bridges in order to grow their country. They have to change as the average age of priests is getting older and older; the young people are not interested

What next for Religion in Ireland. The recession may help the numbers return to the aisles of churches as people look for help in these troubling times. I predict religion in Ireland is going to make drastic changes to attract more clergy people. Ireland is recognised throughout the world as quite a religious country so religion in Ireland is not in dire straits yet.

My opinion on Religion and the need for it
I am not the most religious person in the world; I can't rhyme off hundreds of prayers however I feel religion is important in Ireland and in my life. I feel it is a means to an end, what is the point in living; it is a closure to a life. People need a belief or they question their sanity on working hard every day for WHAT? I choose to believe in it as I want and thank religion as a place where u visit loved ones graves. My father is buried thanks to religion in a graveyard, were he gets the respect I wish, and if I didn't believe in religion then who I am talking to when I say my prayers when I stand before his grave. It is the only place in my life and in my world I know I can meet my father again. For the last 18 years I have been wasting my time as I bow my head upon his headstone, I DON'T THINK SO.
R.I.P. MY DAD
(Religion will always be in my society)

The uncomfortable topic of the internet and the Sex Industry

The uncomfortable topic of the internet and the Sex Industry
Sex and porn sites on the Internet are seen as shoddy phenomenon in the last twenty years, however it has revolutionised the way the process of payment on the Internet is today. the porn industry were the first to : Web Camera/Video Conferencing, Advertising, Banner Ads, Traffic for cash ads, Streaming videos, Fee based subscriptions, Focus on user/user ability, Pay per Click etc... I t is a multi billion dollar industry throughout the world, bigger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball Industries. The size of the porn industry is $57.0 billion world wide. this Industry research has proved to a dangerous business. There shame and secrecy surrounding sexual abuse make it difficult to get accurate data regarding incidents. There is some statistics, between 66 - 90% of women in the sex Industry were abused as children, in another study 51.2% of women working as exotic dancers were threatened with a women, by far the biggest crime in this Industry is the increasing number of issues with child pornography. I think the Sex industry is a crime in some respects but instead of people moaning about all the issues at the end of the day, it is peoples choice to view what they like and if anyone has that big of problem such as government, adults, parents they can regulate it quite easily.

Virtual Communities

Virtual Communities

We are all familiar what virtual communities through facebook, etc but what is it Really! Online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online "space" where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time. From that point on, the rest is up to you. Your community will be what you and your members make of it! Play games, send photos, create friendships etc. Virtual communities are growing bigger and bigger in the way that people keep in touch with each other. The sending of letter is increasing becoming a formal thing and quite frankly a thing of the past. I am a member of facebook and it is now a habit to check my account on a regular basis. I also from time to time keep an eye on my favourite teams Fans Forum to keep up to date of all the latest news regarding the team. I think these virtual communities are also a good source of information as you find certain facts that otherwise would not be published through other media like newspaper, TV and radio. It is an easier way for people to express there opinion good or bad, for example Dell have a forum about their computers of the positives and the negatives about their product

Is the World of TV about to end?

Is the World of TV about to end?

In class today i discovered that most people no longer schedule their day around what is on the box. I for one couldn't care less what Dot Cotton or Blanche Hunt is doing every day. I would suggest people in their twenty's are spending more time on their laptop oppose to watching TV programmes in the front room with their families or flatmates. In my opinion i think the television will no longer exist come the middle of the 21st century due to the advances of the Internet and sky plus etc. The reason i say this is because television companies make a lot of their revenue due to advertising and if people aren't watching TV, these companies will not pay to be on TV. Advertising in the future will take place on the Internet.

First Presentation done and DUSTED

Drink level is at an all time low as i have no time to take my weekly drink allowance, assignments and presentations are top of the agenda. i can't complain as it is the same for everybody. I have consequently moved up to Dundalk and cutting out the hour up and hour down to my home in Monaghan. I won the table quiz in the bar so i am not as thick as i thought i was, which is very reassuring, and just maybe i will do ok in my exams. ha ha! Ok back to work then.......

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

College is now at the point, that work levels has gone into overdrive. The Lectures are giving more deadlines for projects that the pages on the diary have changed colour. overall the subjects and classes are interesting, after all it is fourth so there has to be an increase level of work to be done. In E-Business at the moment we are on to the topics SEO (search engine optimisation) and SES (search engine marketing). I always wondered how when searching for a particular item why certain things came to the top of the page and why sometimes listings were on the right hand side. I now have the answers, so if i get a business i will have have some knowledge in becoming number one in Google.

Search for anything using your favourite crawler-based search engines. Almost instantly the search engine will sort through the millions of pages it knows about and present you with ones that match your topic. The matches will even be ranked so that the most relevant ones comes first, although the search engines doesn't always get it right.
So how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through. They follow a set of rules known as an algorithm, exactly how it works is a closely kept trade secret but they do follow certain general rules which are:

• Identifying target key phrases
• the location and frequency of keywords on a web page
• Including key phrases in the page
• Get links to the site

There are two types of listings, Organic listings on the left and paid for listings on the right.
The four main search engine are Google, Ask, Yahoo and MSN with Google representing the greatest share









As technology continues and people use technology more and more frequently, it is going to be very important to get high up on listings in order to be noticed and recognised as TV is going to be a thing of the past in relation to advertising.

In the Flow of Fourth Year now

I am now in the fourth week of my fourth year. i am finding fourth more enjoyable than previous years as the subjects are more related to what i like and hope to find a career in. I have learned that my knowledge of E.Business is pretty limited and i have to do research work at home in relation to Google trends and Google analytics. We also required to find companies that have been black listed by Google due to Hidden or invisible text, keyword stuffing, bounce pages or other cloaking techniques, page-jacking and link farms & link spam. The projects are starting to build-up with the first deadline being the 13th October. The work begins NOW!

E. Business by Emlyn Clerkin

My first few weeks in E.business

I am looking forward to this topic and the class as i think it will benefit me in the future. In the 21st century it of utmost importance to be familiar with computers and the increasing processing abilities of them. My knowledge in E.Business is pretty limited but i have booked holidays, flights and bought items online. I am of the opinion that in the future E.Business will be of paramount importance in my world of work as if the computer development continues, i don't want to be left behind. This class also gives me the potential in the future to set up a business online when i learn the regulations and the processes of E.Business. It should be interesting and educational, and the lecture seems to be ok also.